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Vintage engagement rings find favour with modern brides

By Andrea YuSpecial to the Star

Sat., Feb. 6, 2016

Shriram Venkataramana had two months to look for an engagement ring for his girlfriend, Payal Uttam. He wanted to propose while they were on vacation in Bali, but he was overwhelmed just thinking about finding the perfect ring.

“It was very intimidating,” Venkataramana says. “I had never been into a jewelry store, looking for a ring for someone else before, so I avoided it as long as I could.”

A jewelry-savvy friend took Venkataramana to a Birks store last August, where they pinpointed rings that suited Uttam’s style. “All four of them happened to be estate rings,” Venkataramana says. “They were the unique ones — not your diamond solitaires.”

So their next stop was Cynthia Findlay Antiques on King St. W, which specializes in vintage jewelry. It was there Venkataramana found the perfect ring for his now wife.

Uttam is one of a growing number of brides sporting vintage rings on their fingers. Influenced by popular movies and TV series such as The Great Gatsby and Downton Abbey, Cynthia Findlay has seen increasing demand for her vintage engagement rings from the Victorian (1837-1901), Edwardian (1901-1910), Art Nouveau (1890-1918) and Art Deco (1920-1930) eras.

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For Venkataramana, it came down to finding a ring that suited his artist girlfriend’s style.

“Payal sketches, sculpts and draws. So I had to make sure what I got her was unique and one of a kind, but at the same time maintained the esthetic that she likes in her art.”

Findlay had asked Venkataramana questions about Uttam’s life, work and hobbies. “Originally she was recommending a lot of things that I didn’t think were in line with Payal’s esthetic,” Venkataramana says. So Venkataramana showed Findlay photos on his phone of Uttam’s freer, unconstrained style of art and sculpture work. “From then on, her recommendations were bang on.”

With the help of Findlay and Uttam’s sister, Venkataramana narrowed his options to two rings. The first was a Victorian piece from the 1880s that featured a large rose cut diamond. “It was a very rough, broad sweeps kind of cut.”

The second was an Edwardian ring made in Belgium in 1905 — an oval diamond set in platinum with handcrafted filigree along the sides. “It’s almost sculptural in the way it’s made,” Venkataramana says of the second ring, which he slipped onto Uttam’s finger in a forested valley by the Ayung River in Bali.

Uttam fell in love with the intricate carvings and careful craftsmanship. “You can see the trace of a person’s hand,” Uttam says. “I was really impressed that he managed to find a ring that was so unusual. I hadn’t seen a ring like this before.”

Findlay has been selling vintage jewelry and antiques for more than 35 years. Engagement rings in her shop start at $400 and run upwards of $20,000. Findlay acquires them through private sellers and works with independent gemologists to determine the ring’s value.

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“Pieces were handmade with tremendous pride, especially from 1915 to 1930,” she says. “People were paid to do a beautiful job. They weren’t paid to produce 42 rings from a mould.”

Some jewelry shops have gemologists on staff, including Van Rijk Estate Jewellery and Watches, at Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave.

“We look at a ring, check the colour of the stone, the clarity, the weight, the era and the workmanship,” says store manager and certified gemologist Pina Danyszczuk. “If it’s a signed piece like Tiffany or Cartier then it’s worth even more.”

At Van Rijk, Danyszczuk says on average, the budget for young couples buying engagement rings runs between $5,000 and $15,000.

Gemological certifications also come with an appraisal value that customers can take to their insurance provider. “The replacement value is not what they paid but what they should insure it for,” says Danyszczuk, who always notes on gemological certificates that vintage rings are not readily replaceable. “You have to insure it for much more than for what you would pay here for it because to reproduce the modern version of what they lost costs much more.”

Engagement rings can be added as an extension of your homeowners or renters insurance in case of loss, theft or damage. “You should have it insured,” says Danyszczuk. “If you’re going to spend $15,000, you don’t want to spend that again. You can sleep better at night.”

Engagement ring trends

Art Deco

Made in the 1920s, Art Deco rings are characterized by elaborate designs and geometric motifs. “A lot of the Art Deco rings were flat because women wore gloves,” explains Pina Danyszczuk, store manager at Van Rijk Estate Jewellery and Watches. Danyszczuk says that Art Deco is the most in-demand era of vintage rings at her store.

Before the advent of machine cutting technology, jewellers hand-cleaved each facet of the diamond which often resulted in a slightly imperfect shape. Also known as an Old Mine Cut, this style of diamond was popular in both the Edwardian and Victorian eras. They’re the precursor of today’s brilliant cut diamonds.

“A lot of couples say they’re not interested in a diamond at all,” says Cynthia Findlay, who has been selling vintage rings for over 35 years. Sapphires, rubies and emeralds are popular alternatives as engagement rings, although many vintage styles are accented with smaller diamonds in the design.

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